Warner and Tourdot Headline MAC's 2014 All-Academic Team

April 30, 2014
By ODU Athletics

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Mid-American Conference announced Old Dominion University’s Tristan Warner and Matt Tourdot to its 2014 Academic All-MAC Wrestling Team today, as voted by faculty athletic representatives at MAC institutions. A total of ten student-athletes were named to the team.

In March, Warner was named the sole recipient of the prestigious Elite 89 Award for the 2014 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship, as he currently holds a 3.97 GPA, while majoring in Communications and Criminal Justice. The Elite 89 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s championships. Warner is Old Dominion University's first ever recipient of the Elite 89 Award.

Matt Tourdot, Old Dominion’s heavyweight, currently possesses an impressive 3.64 cumulative GPA, as a Biology major.

It is evident how serious academics are taken within the program as last year, Steve Martin guided his Old Dominion University wrestling program to the No. 8 highest G.P.A. in the nation; while in 2011, Martin’s Monarchs’ G.P.A. ranked No. 5 out of every wrestling program in the country.

The Academic All-MAC honor is for a student-athlete who has excelled in athletics and academics. To qualify, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA and have participated in at least 50 percent of the contests for that particular sport. First-year students and junior college transfers in their first year of residence are not eligible for the award. Outstanding academic and athletic accomplishments for the current season are only considered.